Tag Archive for 'Molecule'

The purple/blue solution in this vial contains crystals of berkelocene. Image credit: Alyssa Gaiser / Berkeley Lab.

Berkelocene: Chemists Create Berkelium-Containing Organometallic Molecule

Mar 12, 2025 by News Staff

Organometallic molecules consist of a metal ion surrounded by a carbon-based framework. They are relatively common for early actinide elements like uranium...

Biswas et al. observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced in unison around a buckminsterfullerene molecule, then emitted excess energy in the form of several electrons. Image credit: RMT Bergues.

Physicists Observe Synchronized Dance of Electrons on Buckminsterfullerene Molecule

Feb 19, 2025 by News Staff

Physicists from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Hamburg have observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced...

An artist’s impression of fast phosphorescence: the blue light rays come into the molecule to generate bold yellow pillars, representing the acceleration of phosphorescence through the mixing of singlet states. Image credit: YAP Co Ltd.

Metal-Free Organic Molecules Show Highly Efficient Room-Temperature Phosphorescence

Jul 4, 2024 by News Staff

Metal-free organic 3-bromo-2-thienyl diketones exhibit fast and highly efficient room-temperature phosphorescence with high color purity under various...

An artist’s impression of the center of the starburst galaxy NGC 253. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Detects Over One Hundred Molecular Species in Nearby Starburst Galaxy

Apr 2, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected over 100 molecular species in the center of the starburst galaxy...

This view of Titan is among the last images NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Tricarbon Molecule Detected in Atmosphere of Titan

Mar 18, 2024 by Natali Anderson

The tricarbon molecule (C3) is likely produced in the upper atmosphere of Titan by the reaction of abundant acetylene with atomic carbon. This view of...

This illustration shows charged particles from Jupiter impacting Europa’s surface, splitting frozen water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen molecules; scientists believe some of these newly created oxygen gases could migrate toward the moon’s subsurface ocean, as depicted in the inset image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SWRI / PU.

Europa Produces Less Oxygen than Previously Thought

Mar 4, 2024 by News Staff

Using data from the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have calculated the...

Shuai et al. used a synchronized attosecond X-ray pulse pair (pictured pink and green here) from an X-ray free electron laser to study the energetic response of electrons (gold) in liquid water on attosecond time scale, while the hydrogen (white) and oxygen (red) atoms are ‘frozen’ in time. Image credit: Nathan Johnson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Physicists Take First Look at Electrons Moving in Real-Time in Liquid Water

Feb 16, 2024 by News Staff

A research team led by Argonne National Laboratory physicists has isolated the energetic movement of an electron while ‘freezing’ the motion of the...

Arredondo et al. looked at four silicate-rich asteroids using the FORCAST instrument on NASA’s SOFIA observatory to isolate the mid-infrared spectral signatures indicative of molecular water on two of them: Iris and Massalia. Image credit: NASA / Carla Thomas / Southwest Research Institute.

SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Nominally Dry Asteroids

Feb 13, 2024 by News Staff

Using the FORCAST instrument on NASA’s retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), astronomers have obtained mid-infrared spectra...

Cardillo-Zallo et al. report on a nanoscale system consisting of endohedral fullerenes encapsulated within single-walled carbon nanotubes, capable of the delivery and release of krypton atoms on-demand, via coalescence of host fullerene cages under the action of the electron beam (in situ) or heat (ex situ). Image credit: Cardillo-Zallo et al., doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c07853.

Physicists Create One-Dimensional Noble Gas

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

Using advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods, physicists at the University of Nottingham have successfully trapped atoms of krypton inside...

Litman et al. show that ions and water molecules at the surface of most salt-water solutions, known as electrolyte solutions, are organized in a completely different way than traditionally understood. Image credit: Litman et al., doi: 10.1038/s41557-023-01416-6.

Water Molecules at Salt Water’s Surface Organized Differently than Previously Thought: Study

Jan 17, 2024 by News Staff

The distribution of ions at the air/water interface plays a decisive role in many natural processes. Several studies have reported that larger ions tend...

Sketch of a Rydberg molecule (a): the coordinates of the Rydberg electron (blue) and ground state atom (green) relative to the Rydberg core (red) are denoted with black arrows; the relevant spins are that of the Rydberg electron s1, the electron of the ground state atom s2 and the nuclear spin of the ground state atom I. Sketch of a trilobite molecule (b): the Rydberg core and the ground state atom are shown (with exaggerated size) as red and green spheres respectively; the electronic probability density projected to 2D is indicated by the density of blue dots. Image credit: Althön et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43818-7.

Physicists Observe Trilobite Rydberg Molecules

Dec 18, 2023 by News Staff

A team of physicists at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau has produced pure trilobite molecules in rubidium over...

Meteoroids bombarded the Earth-Moon system 800 million years ago. Image credit: Murayama, Osaka University.

Can Comets Deliver Building Blocks for Life to Rocky Exoplanets?

Nov 15, 2023 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences, researchers at the University of Cambridge...

An artist’s depiction of the liquid-like layer of molecules repelling water droplets. Image credit: Ekaterina Osmekhina / Aalto University

Materials Scientists Create Most Water-Repellent Surface Ever

Oct 23, 2023 by News Staff

Omniphobic liquid-like surfaces are a new type of liquid-repellent surface that offer many technical benefits over traditional approaches. They have molecular...

This Webb image shows HH 211, a Herbig-Haro object located 1,000 light-years away in the constellation of Perseus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / T. Ray, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Outflows from Young Protostars are Mostly Molecular, Webb Astronomers Find

Sep 17, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from protostars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high...

Kapil et al. describe the phase behavior of monolayer-confined water by calculating its pressure-temperature phase diagram: (a-g) the pressure-temperature phase diagram of monolayer water was calculated using an machine learning potential that delivers first-principles accuracy; the solid and dashed lines indicate first-order and continuous phase transitions, respectively; the gray regions indicate the statistical uncertainty for solid-solid phase transitions and, for the other transitions, the uncertainties arising from studying a finite number of thermodynamic states; the diagonally hatched area indicates the region in which square and flat-rhombic phases are near degenerate; diagrams of the hexagonal (a), pentagonal (b), square (c), flat-rhombic (d), hexatic (e), superionic (f) and liquid (g) phases are shown with oxygen atoms in red, hydrogen atoms in gray and hydrogen bonds shown by blue lines. Image credit: Kapil et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05036-x.

Monolayer-Confined Water Acts Like Neither Liquid Nor Solid, Scientists Say

Sep 14, 2022 by News Staff

Water in a one-molecule layer acts like neither a liquid nor a solid, and becomes highly conductive at high pressures, according to a new paper published...

Characterization of the liquid-liquid phase transition in colloidal (top) and molecular water (bottom) by identifying links and knots. LDL - low-density liquid; HDL - high-density liquid. Image credit: Neophytou et al., doi: 10.1038/s41567-022-01698-6.

New Research Sheds More Light on Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition in Deeply Supercooled Water

Aug 22, 2022 by News Staff

The new evidence represents a significant step forward in confirming the idea of a liquid-liquid phase transition first proposed in 1992. Characterization...

Zuber et al. observed a new type of molecular ion based on the interaction between a neutral Rydberg atom and a charged ion with a bond length of several micrometers. Image credit: Zuber et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04577-5.

Physicists Observe New Type of Molecular Bond

Jul 7, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Rydberg atoms — atoms with a highly excited electron — can form unusual types of molecular bonds. These bonds differ from the well-known ionic...

Yang et al. made the first direct observation of atomic motion in liquid water molecules that have been excited with laser light. Image credit: Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Physicists Directly Observe Atomic Motion in Liquid Water Molecules

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of experimental physicists from the United States and Sweden has made the first direct observation of how hydrogen atoms in water...

Zhang et al. demonstrate the long-sought transition between atomic and molecular condensates, the bosonic analogue of the crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid in a Fermi gas. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03443-0.

Physicists Turn Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensate into Molecular One

Apr 29, 2021 by News Staff

Molecular quantum gases (that is, ultracold and dense molecular gases) have many potential applications, including quantum control of chemical reactions,...

This illustration highlights Clavius Crater on the Moon with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of SOFIA. Image credit: NASA.

SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

Oct 26, 2020 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) onboard the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy...

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